Bad Behavior at Work

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Article • 12 min read
Bad Behavior at Work
Using Clear Criteria to Identify and Deal With Offenders
By the Mind Tools Content Team
What constitutes bad behavior in the workplace? Let's look at an example.
Ian's an engineer in the aerospace industry. He's exceptionally knowledgeable, and
puts in long hours working on his projects. But his manner with his colleagues is curt,
to say the least. For several years this hasn't overly upset other members of his team –
an easy-going bunch who've just accepted his lack of people skills. They've generally
shrugged off Ian's comments, saying things like "Ah, that's just Ian, don't mind him."
However, in the past year, a couple of team members have moved on. One of their
replacements has now been off sick with stress for six weeks, and he's citing Ian's
frequent unpleasant comments as the cause. As a result, the team is behind on an
important project.
A year ago, Ian was making a valuable contribution to the team, but now he's the
cause of various problems. Yet, he's not actually doing anything different. So was he –
and is he – behavingbehavingClearly, any definition of "bad" behavior depends on the context. We can't just say
"cursing can never be tolerated" or "moaning about the boss at the water cooler is
always fine". Instead, we need a reliable method of assessing whether a particular
behavior is or is not acceptable, which we can apply to any situation. Using a test like
this will help all of those involved to understand why a particular behavior is
unacceptable, and this in turn should play an important role in encouraging everyone
to stamp it out.
https://www.digistore24.com/redir/448909/Sasankamaduwantha4856/
Club Home
(0)
Article • 12 min read
Bad Behavior at Work
Using Clear Criteria to Identify and Deal With Offenders
By the Mind Tools Content Team
What constitutes bad behavior in the workplace? Let's look at an example.
Ian's an engineer in the aerospace industry. He's exceptionally knowledgeable, and
puts in long hours working on his projects. But his manner with his colleagues is curt,
to say the least. For several years this hasn't overly upset other members of his team –
an easy-going bunch who've just accepted his lack of people skills. They've generally
shrugged off Ian's comments, saying things like "Ah, that's just Ian, don't mind him."
However, in the past year, a couple of team members have moved on. One of their
replacements has now been off sick with stress for six weeks, and he's citing Ian's
frequent unpleasant comments as the cause. As a result, the team is behind on an
important project.
A year ago, Ian was making a valuable contribution to the team, but now he's the
cause of various problems. Yet, he's not actually doing anything different. So was he –
and is he – behaving badly?
Clearly, any definition of "bad" behavior depends on the context. We can't just say
"cursing can never be tolerated" or "moaning about the boss at the water cooler is
always fine". Instead, we need a reliable method of assessing whether a particular
behavior is or is not acceptable, which we can apply to any situation. Using a test like
this will help all of those involved to understand why a particular behavior is
unacceptable, and this in turn should play an important role in encouraging everyone
to stamp it out.
Please note that this article is about behavior that is legal, but questionable, and which
is not covered by existing organizational policies or by established professional ethics.
By contrast, illegal behavior, such as discrimination, is clearly never acceptable. If
faced with such a situation, you may want to read the Mind Tools article on
WWhistleblhi How Can "Bad Behavior" Be Defined?
J. Richard Hackman, in his book "Leading Teams"[1], observes that effective teams:
Deliver outputs that are at the very least acceptable to the client (internal or external).
Work together in such a way that they remain a cohesive group in the long term.
Are made up of individuals who benefit from being part of the team.
Our definition of "bad behavior" comes not from what an individual person does or
doesn't do, but from the overall impact that their behavior has on the team's mission
and on its effectiveness. Almost all work is done by teams, so anything that harms
their output is by definition unacceptable.
Applying the definitions above, we can conclude that behavior at work is "bad" if it
does any one or more of the following things:
Harms the team's ability to deliver to its client.
Damages the cohesion of the team.
Has an unnecessary adverse impact on one or more individuals within the team.
Applying these criteria to our initial example, we can say that Ian's behavior has
become unacceptable because it's harming the team's ability to deliver, by causing one
member to be off sick long term and thus reducing capacity. It's also obviously having
an unnecessary adverse impact on that individual.
A less contentious issue might involve a computer programmer who listens to music
with earbuds while working. Most of her day is spent concentrating exclusively on the
code she's writing, so this doesn't directly harm the team's ability to deliver, and it's
not having an adverse impact on anyone else.
But it does arguably damage the coherence of the team. By wearing her headphones,
the programmer is isolating herself from those around her. She doesn't hear work￾related discussions that her colleagues are having, and she doesn't get involved in any
of the office banter that goes on even in conscientious, hard-working groups. As a
result, her colleagues aren't enthusiastic about helping her out when she has a problem
that needs their input. So, in fact, her music habit could legitimately be labeled "bad
behavior", albeit very mild. (However, this has to be balanced against a possible loss
of productivity if she struggles to concentrate...)
On the other hand, having clear tests helps you identify what's not bad behavior.
Taking a possibly controversial example, perhaps one of your team members comes in
one morning with extensive body piercing, or highly visible tattoos. If this doesn't
upset the team's client, doesn't affect the team's delivery, and doesn't excessively upset
other team members (tolerance of others being a necessary quality within a team),
then is this really a problem?
https://www.digistore24.com/redir/448909/Sasankamaduwantha4856/stleblWWhistleblhistlebl